Mid-summer pensions overhaul approved. Parliament, controlled by the ruling Smer party, approves the most radical change to Slovakia’s pension scheme since it was launched nearly 10 years ago. The most important change is a dramatic reduction in the amount that contributors pay into the second, private pension-saving pillar, from 9 to 4 percent as of September 1. This means that the ratio by which contributions are allocated to the social security provider Sociálna Poisťovňa and to funds managed by private pension savings companies will change from the previous 9:9 percent of salaries to 14:4 percent in favour of the social insurer.
The new legislation also increases the minimum assessment base that self-employed people can use to calculate their social and health insurance contributions from the beginning of 2013 and decreases coefficients used to calculate contributions made by self-employed persons for social insurance and health insurance and thus actually increases contributions themselves. Because of the significant changes, the scheme was opened enabling those participating in the second pillar to shift to the first one.
Kia launches production of cee'd Sportswagon. Kia Motors Slovakia in Teplička nad Váhom launches production of its second new model this year: the Kia cee'd Sportswagon. In 2013 the carmaker plans to launch production of a new sports model, the Kia pro_cee'd GT.
New shareholder in SkyToll. The Slovak Anti-Monopoly Office (PMÚ) green-lights the entry of Czech businessman Petr Syrovátko into SkyToll, the company operating the electronic highway toll collection system in Slovakia. Syrovátko bought a 90-percent stake in Ibertax, which is the majority shareholder of SkyToll, via his Netherlands-based company Sevenra N.V. in May.
February: The top business stories of 2012
March: The top business stories of 2012
April: The top business stories of 2012
May: The top business stories of 2012
June: The top business stories of 2012
July: The top business stories of 2012
September: The top business stories of 2012
October: The top business stories of 2012
